


Dancing embers

by Maman



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: (cheesy af title shut up it was like 6 in the morning), Drabble, Gen, It's not as much Major character death as it is a pivotal character already being dead, Mentions of the rest of HOMRA, Mild manga spoilers, and I love my burning passion boys a lot in general, but I'm only a bit sorry, cremation, listen I love my boy with his dumb midlife crisis amount of hobbies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 18:10:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19910011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maman/pseuds/Maman
Summary: Totsuka's death shook all of HOMRA down to the core, but they would pull themselves together and send him to the afterlife the way only they could.





	Dancing embers

**Author's Note:**

> "Maman did you write another Major character death thing in the middle of the night?"
> 
> Shut up I finally finished reading the Red manga and it hurts a lot. But in my defense, I've wanted to write this since 2012.
> 
> Enjoy.

It was Mikoto who lit the first spark.

Just like they had all planned to give Anna a bouquet's worth of red roses for her birthday, since passed in solemn silence without any celebration, each of HOMRA's members now stepped up to the makeshift wooden altar and added their flame to the steadily growing fire.

The affair wasn't a traditional cremation by any standards. It had taken a lot of negotiating and persuading, mostly by Kusanagi over the phone with Scepter 4's lieutenant, to even get the body released for the funeral.

But here they were, the close-knit group described as street punks and hooligans in hushed whispers by passers-by, in an isolated abandoned parking area, huddled together in the cold evening air.

Mourning their close friend and comrade's death, honouring him the only way they knew how to.

They would burn his remains until there was nothing left. N _o blood, no bone, no ash_.

And then they would go back to the bar, and celebrate his life, and remember.

It was a magnificent send-off, fitting for HOMRA's third-in-command. The fire blazed and roared, reaching high into the sky, scattering embers and ashes into the wind that whipped around them, almost resembling an interpretive dance number with how it whirled and wove a path between each member.

This fire, much like the Red King's own, didn't seem to do any damage to the clansmen.

'He'd surely have had something to say about this…' Mikoto thought to himself with a dry chuckle as Anna returned to his side, having been the one to linger the longest to pay her respects by the altar that now resembled a bonfire more than any funeral pyre.

The ash and embers spun and danced around the two of them the longest, whooshing around lace skirts and ruffling up fiery red hair, before dipping down and brushing against their hands and faces.

"It's like he's saying goodbye." the young girl remarked as a stray ember landed square on the tip of her nose. She didn't move to brush it away, but focused her eyes on the speck until they crossed and she had to blink.

"Mmn." was their King's low rumbling grunt of a reply.

A shuffle of feet approached them from behind. "He'd tell you to be careful, Anna, or you might get stuck like that…" Kusanagi knelt down beside her and put his hand on her shoulder, she suspected as much for his own reassurance as hers.

Totsuka Tatara's red was gone, taken from them in the dead of night without warning, but it would live on in their hearts, in their passion and loyalty and bonds of friendship, and make HOMRA's flame burn just that much brighter, hotter and redder.

-

Once the fire had died down, true to their chant, their promise, the only thing that remained of their fallen comrade's funeral pyre was a single cracked red marble, which shattered into microscopic dust as the cold night air hit it.

They would dry their tears, make their way back to the bar, drink to his memory, share stories and laugh.

And then they would find the bastard responsible by any means necessary, and make them pay for what they did.

They would go to war.

**Author's Note:**

> So, they cremate their dead in both Japanese funerary culture and here, and I wanted my boys to give their treasured friend a proper send-off.
> 
> Also I wrote this in a frenzy at 3 in the morning, my twitter is @11moji if you have any bones to pick.


End file.
